Comprehensive Treatment for Thyroid and Parathyroid Disease
Your thyroid weighs less than an ounce, but it’s no lightweight when it comes the important role it plays in your body. This H-shaped gland on the front of your neck produces hormones that affect many body functions, such as how fast your heart beats and how quickly you burn calories.
Thyroid problems can be hard to pinpoint because their symptoms are similar to other conditions, such as extra sensitivity to temperature, unexplained weight loss or gain, fatigue, a rapid or irregular heartbeat, dry skin or hair, changes in bowel movements or trouble sleeping.
Virtua’s team of board-certified endocrinologists are highly skilled at diagnosing conditions of your thyroid and parathyroid (glands that sit behind the thyroid and produce hormones that control levels of key minerals in the body). They’re skilled at developing effective treatment plans to relieve your discomfort and help your gland function better.
Conditions treated include:
- Hyperthyroidism, an overactive thyroid producing too much hormone
- Hypothyroidism, an underactive thyroid producing too little hormone
- Nodules, masses growing on the gland
- Thyroid cancer
- Graves’ disease, a genetic autoimmune disorder that is a type of hyperthyroidism
- Inflammation of the thyroid (thyroiditis)
- Hyperparathyroidism, an overactive parathyroid
- Hypoparathyroidism, an underactive parathyroid
- Parathyroid cancer
Based on your symptoms, your team will order blood tests that measure the function of your thyroid. You also may undergo an ultrasound or a tissue biopsy.
Depending on your condition, treatment options may include:
- Hormone replacement therapy
- Medicine to block hormone production
- Radioactive iodine to disable the thyroid
- Surgery to remove part or all of the gland
Through careful management and personal, compassionate care, our clinicians can help you get back to your life.
